Lafayette ABC affiliate KATC has been nominated for a regional Emmy award for its coverage of the 2011 "Trinity II" saga in the Gulf of Mexico. Lafayette ABC affiliate KATC has been nominated for a regional Emmy award for its coverage of the 2011 "Trinity II" saga in the Gulf of Mexico. The station is pitted against other Gulf Coast TV news stations in the Florida-based Suncoast Emmy Awards. Suncoast is a chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
The Trinity II was the liftboat that got caught in Tropical Storm Nate in September 2011 off the Bay of Campeche, forcing 10 men to abandon ship for a lifeboat that was found drifting several days later. Four of the ten including two New Iberia men died; two other Louisiana men including a third man from New Iberia survived.
KATC is competing in the "Continuing Coverage - No Time Limit" category against reporting ranging from WDSU in New Orleans' coverage of the dismembered stripper whose remains were found washed up on a Mississippi beach to an Orlando, Fla., station's coverage of the Casey Anthony trial.
[Note: IND Monthly Managing Editor Walter Pierce is the former executive news producer at KATC.]